Here’s another way to improve your blog: avoid these common grammar errors!
Conversational writing is engaging, persuasive, and fun. Following stuffy grammatical rules, like never ending a sentence with a preposition, can make you sound pretentious. But committing these grammar goofs just makes you look silly!
Improve Your Blog: Avoid These Common Grammar Errors!
I know I can be a stickler for good grammar! I was glad to see the good folks over at Copyblogger not only agree that grammar is important, but they made this cool infographic about it, too.
Since your blog is the voice of your business, show your attention to detail by learning how to write right!
Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.
What’s your take? Do you think it’s important to avoid these common grammar errors? Would better grammar improve your blog?
If you enjoyed this post, please share :)
A good way of demonstrating common language mistakes. I’ll print it out for my daughter as a reminder for her schoolwork.
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I hope she enjoys it, Dot! I think it’s a great learning tool.
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Bad grammar is also my bugbear; unfortunately it seems to be everywhere these days, including shop signs and even official documents!
The 15 mistakes above are definitely the most common I come across-and top of my list – it’s the ubiquitous apostrophe used with plurals- maybe something that can be added to rule no.8 as a DO NOT USE FOR PLURALS rule….
Oh my gosh I 1,000% agree with you on that one! WHY is that becoming so prevalent? That seems like THE most basic rule of English…
Thanks for pointing that one out, Ioana!
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Just as you used the phrase, “I’m literally dying of shame” as an example of how not to use the word, “literally”, wouldn’t using 1,000% be similar as, by definition, nothing can be more than 100%, yes? With that being said, sometimes we can go too far, but your article hit upon something that I find almost repulsive and that is poor writing. Thank you for the opening paragraph, however. Going too far will make you sound pretentious to be sure, but some of these are simply no brainers. Ending a sentence (“Where you at?”) in our house will get you sideways looks every time! : )
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Hi, Philip!
I guess I consider 1000% hyperbole rather than poor writing. But I guess it is a little silly :)
Thanks for stopping by!
Louise Myers recently posted..How to Post a Link on Facebook to Get NOTICED!
Thanks Louise, a fabulous infographic. So easy to make a mistake sometimes without realising. English is not the easiest language either :)
Michelle Nichols recently posted..Social Media: Facts & Figures and the Revolution
Sure isn’t! I’m not above mistakes myself.
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Love this Louise thanks for sharing it, I get picked up all the time for my improper use of apostrophe when writing. really need to kick that habit :P
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That can be a toughie, as it’s so prevalent. Good luck Sarah!
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Hi Louise
Thanks so much for posting this; it’s great! (have I used the semi-colon correctly? ;))
I completely agree that using grammar correctly is an important aspect of writing, and I’d just like to add that personally I also think the way we communicate these days is shifting the importance of it. Often on line it seems acceptable for people to write as they speak, i.e. in an informal manner, a trend which is encouraged by social media and texting. As we rarely re-visit our learning of English from our school days, many of us will continue to write as adults how we did when we left school, whether we learnt grammar correctly or not. Another example is starting a sentence with ‘And’ or ‘But’, which we were taught never to do, but that you often see in journalism.
I am going to save this infograph in my bookmarks! :)
Hi Marcia!
I appreciate your insights!
I think the less formal writing style is fine, to a degree. Sloppy mistakes like the misuse and misspelling of words is a pet peeve of mine, though.
Use of semi-colons, I’m not too picky about. LOL
Thanks for your comment!
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Hi Louise,
This is a great share – lovely simple explanations of some of the most common howlers.
People also often get “whose” and “who’s” mixed up – in fact anything involving apostrophes is a minefield for bloggers who don’t understand how to use them.
I do think bloggers should pay attention to their grammar, but it has to be said, the English language can be a bit of a pig – so many exceptions to so many rules! Hats off to all those who bravely blog in it when it’s not even their first language.
Many thanks for this – it’s a very useful little reference tool,
Sue
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So true, Sue, English is incredibly confusing, even for native speakers!
Thanks for visiting – enjoy!
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This is amazing! So concise and fun to read, I should print it off, and hand it out to people when discover a goof as described. And circle their goofs with a red marker!
Despite all these, and personally following them to the letter, I still demand (for better or worse) that “funner” is a word, and periods come after quote punctuation when ending a sentence. hahaha! >:D
Here’s something similar, yet a verbal and not so much written issue, that I’ve had a long and challenging effort dealing with myself. The contractions for “there are” and “where are”, and “here are”. So often I’ve caught myself saying “where’s my keys?” and “there’s some happy dogs running outside.” and I kick myself. But in this case, it’s a bit of a mental effort to perceive the two words “where are” audibly in such speedy expressions, it has become natural to put an s to clarify. And so it becomes “where is my keys?” “Oh! Here is my keys!”, and this avoids sounding simply “where my keys?” “Oh! Here my keys!”.
And don’t get me started on “from whence”. When I hear something like “They will return downtown from whence they came” it comes across as “They will return downtown from from where they came”.
But everyone has their own automatically learned, and then deliberately defined take on the English language (ie. funner, heh heh). Ah it’s good to get that off my chest. Love this infographic.
Hi Tom! Yes, we all have our quirks, that’s what makes us unique!
Thanks for visiting. I’m glad you liked the post!
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Very useful grammar lesson, really cool using the cartoons to make it enjoyable to read and easier to understand. We often do such kind of grammatical mistakes and this post will help us reminding these errors next time while writing any article. This post will not only help bloggers to improve their writing but also to the people who are learning the language.
thanks for the useful tips
amit
amit tiwari recently posted..How to pass an exam just by studying the night before
You are most welcome – thanks for you comment, Amit!
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